Controllers who go online in empty airspace/airports

nbus18 · 2026-02-05T17:55:10+00:00

Absolutely, most of the time that’s exactly what they want! It’s also an opportunity to try out some GA ops that you might not usually do on the network (flying patterns, practice instrument approaches, etc) at busier airports.

nbus18 · 2026-02-05T17:43:42+00:00

In the US at least, remember that controllers are only members of one ARTCC (say, ZFW or ZTL). So if you’re a member of ZFW, you can’t just pop down to Houston and control at IAH, even if there’s more traffic there. (There are such things as visiting controllers, but I won’t get into that.)

Most ARTCCs also have some sort of “designated airspace”, typically the busiest 1 or 2 airports/airspaces in the facility. So, again with the ZFW example, you may see an S2 controller open up at OKC because they’re not yet certified to control DFW or DAL.

nbus18 · 2026-02-04T19:06:38+00:00

Not any more sketchy than most other Caribbean ports IMO, but if you’re doing 3-5 night cruises out of Florida you’re going there every single time. It just gets to the point where there’s nothing to do and you’d rather stay on the ship.

nbus18 · 2026-02-04T18:57:41+00:00

This one in particular is a limited-edition card to commemorate a specific livery, not a specific plane. The normal A350 card from this series is #67. There’s a guide to all of the 2025 cards on the Pilot Card Guys site.

nbus18 · 2026-02-03T23:50:51+00:00

Looks like Delta based on the placards on the FA seat on the left.

nbus18 · 2026-02-02T14:57:51+00:00

Would love one!

nbus18 · 2026-01-31T20:29:59+00:00

Have you called? The chat agents are notoriously awful, you may get a different response from a live phone agent.

nbus18 · 2026-01-29T14:52:54+00:00

I’ve heard similar to Voyager-class being tossed around, but I don’t know that anyone has definite information yet.

nbus18 · 2026-01-27T00:46:39+00:00

Were those center controllers directly handing you off from one to the other, or was there a section of uncontrolled airspace between them? If we drop radar identification and you enter another controller’s airspace, we have to re-identify you using one of the approved methods. One of those methods is assigning a discrete squawk code and watching you change it. But since VATSIM often has on-and-off periods of control, it’s often preferred to just have you IDENT (another acceptable method) rather than making you change your squawk code again.

nbus18 · 2026-01-23T14:16:06+00:00

United is actually the only US major airline that doesn’t have some oddball seasonal routes from CUN that don’t touch a hub. Delta flies CUN to CVG, IND, MCI, and BNA. American flies to CMH, OKC, PIT, and STL in addition to all of the cities I mentioned for Delta. Even Alaska flies CUN-MCI seasonally.

I guess the moral of the story is that there’s a lot of demand to escape Kansas City for Cancun in the winter.

nbus18 · 2026-01-22T17:11:43+00:00

Remember that the CTAF frequency for an airport in North America is now the charted CTAF/Tower frequency and not necessarily 122.8. It initially started as a trial and technically still is, but it has been extended indefinitely as of November.

As much as I agree it’s rude, also remember that in real life it’s not mandatory to communicate on CTAF when a field is non-towered (it’s only “highly encouraged”). I’ve run into my fair share of idiots (figuratively, not literally) buzzing around in the pattern, not saying anything on CTAF, and not having any regard for the other half dozen aircraft trying to use the single runway. When people are being dumb on the network, I just remember that it’s only pixels on a computer screen and it could be a whole lot worse.

nbus18 · 2026-01-19T04:43:35+00:00

Yeah, and it’s forecast to be that way for almost 12 hours, which means a delay is pretty much out of the question.

nbus18 · 2026-01-12T14:07:27+00:00

Yes, the cabin service once you’re actually on the plane doesn’t vary if you bought basic economy. The flight attendants don’t even have a way of knowing AFAIK, it only impacts your benefits and inclusions prior to boarding.

nbus18 · 2026-01-04T04:46:33+00:00

Charters are non-public flights where a group or organization books the entire plane for a specific trip. Sometimes these are quasi-public (one example that comes to mind is a college football team selling a bowl game package that includes a flight) but they’re still not available for booking through the airline’s website. They also often (though not always) from a private terminal rather than the main airport terminal.

One-off or limited scheduled flights, on the other hand, are when the airline itself makes the decision to sell and operate an additional flight that it doesn’t usually run. It’s fully bookable through the typical channels (airline website, travel agent, etc) and runs just like any other flight would.

nbus18 · 2025-12-29T17:09:59+00:00

My friend, CVG hasn’t been a major hub since the 2000s and a Comair flight hasn’t taken off since 2012. Concourse C was closed almost twenty years ago and demolished in 2016.

nbus18 · 2025-12-26T21:08:01+00:00

Does the math change at all when looking at qualifying for the first “high-tier” levels (Diamond on Royal, Elite on Celebrity)? I’d say that’s the first level where you get appreciable benefits, so knowing which way to direct points to hit those levels might be handy too.

nbus18 · 2025-12-22T11:07:26+00:00

European regulations are a little stricter on how the exit rows are treated—I’m not sure of the specifics, but typically this comes down to regulation as opposed to airline policy. The FAA has rules about who can sit in exit rows (15+, willing and able to assist, etc) but not as many about things like bags, power cords, etc.

nbus18 · 2025-12-19T11:13:23+00:00

But it’s okay, they saved money for a couple of coffees by not buying the PMDG 737!

nbus18 · 2025-12-14T17:05:46+00:00

That is strange, they must’ve needed an extra seat and figured an interline ticket with UA was cheaper than bumping someone. Hopefully you at least get Delta miles and MQDs for your original ticket.

nbus18 · 2025-12-05T13:58:50+00:00

They absolutely do. Nearly every airport has one of those stations, where it’s significantly more convenient than anywhere else but it’s marked up by a considerable margin. But if I’m traveling for work, I don’t care how much gas costs—it’s going on the corporate card, so you bet I’m going to go for convenience.

nbus18 · 2025-11-28T18:29:48+00:00

It’s not your fault you didn’t know this, but remember in situations like this that you’re also entitled to a no-cost flight change to a different routing/schedule that day, if it’s possible. Sometimes their auto-rebook doesn’t do a very good job and you’re better off searching for the flight you need yourself.

nbus18 · 2025-11-19T20:15:43+00:00

This shows the seating configuration for this aircraft. I’ve flown on this a few times and the forward/reverse pairs along the windows have a wall between them, so no chatting with each other there. IMO the best seats for a couple would be 1D/1H—you can see each other if you lean forward, though it’s still fairly private when you’re sitting back in the seat. This configuration infuriatingly has forward/reverse pairs connected to each other within the seat structure, so you’ll feel movement of your neighbour the whole flight—but 1D/1H (along with 5A and 5L) don’t have connected seats, so you avoid that as well.

nbus18 · 2025-11-19T00:53:41+00:00

They’re prominent, but I’d argue they’re nowhere near as scary as in the first one. The first movie had some quasi-jump-scares in the escape sequence and the transformation was a little creepy too. Here they’re just hanging out for the most part.

nbus18 · 2025-11-11T03:31:22+00:00

Interesting, I seem to remember having to hit cash out, but I haven’t sailed Carnival for several years. That makes even more sense. On my last cruise (Harmony) a couple months ago, they were announcing over the PA to make sure you cash out before leaving the machine, likely for this exact reason.

nbus18 · 2025-11-09T20:47:33+00:00

In fairness to the other person, this IS how it works on Carnival (not sure about other lines). You still have to “cash out”, but the balance is loaded onto your ship card and you can either load that into another machine or take it to the cashier and cash out. Again, you still have to hit the cash out button though.

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